Entries in Cap and Trade
(24)

As former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gains momentum, I’ve seen some pretty nasty comments about his couch moment, when he made an ad about climate change with then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Gingrich was making a case for alternative energy, by the way, not the massive Cap and Trade bill Democrats wanted to pass without even reading.

The first couch moment occurred in 2008. There was a significant off the couch moment, however, in 2009.

Photo by Kay B. Day/View of ocean from Mickler's Landing near Jacksonville, Fla.Global warming alarmists are an organized, well-funded ‘uni-speak’ bunch whose Climate-Gate scandal was widely underreported by government friendly media. The scandal was deflated when pro-warming academics cleared their fellows. But now those alarmists are gearing up to take their message to the people even as Chicago Business says the Chicago Climate Exchange “is scaling back.”

Site in Bear Creek Educational Forest in Florida. [Photo Div. of Forestry, State of Florida]One of the big schemes in the climate change movement is to reward countries that have large amounts of forestland. The thinking goes that industrialized countries like the U.S. should pay these so-called developing nations to offset the carbon our society emits.

Never mind the Somalis who chop down trees for the black market in charcoal or the nomads in primitive countries who overgraze. Never mind the damage wrought by civil warfare or complete lack of regulation in some countries. And never mind the disasters caused in some large developing nations after questionable agricultural practices were mandated by their governments. But what we can't 'nevermind' is the US superiority in forestland.

Did you ever wonder why there’s such a difference between how a legislator actually votes and how media describes that legislator? A cover story in Monday’s Florida Times-Union illustrates this great divide.

The T-U got the story from McClatchy Newspapers. The story titled ‘Congress looks to punt on big issues before breaking’ analyzed the paralysis over big issues like immigration and tax increases in Congress. It’s a fairly balanced account except for one passage that got me fully awake as I sipped my first cup of coffee in the wee hours this morning.

Obama’s refusal is bizarre, considering his support for legislation to limit and tax carbon (Cap and Trade/HR 2454) and the fact the small business loan package (possibly HR 5297—Obama does not cite the bill he’s promoting) he’s touting is geared directly to energy tech and enviro-tech companies—those are two of the targeted industries in addition to others like photonics and digital media. Obama gives the impression the bill is some sort of boon to mom and pop businesses. It isn’t.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced he can’t get the votes to pass a Cap and Trade bill that would cap carbon emissions and permit the trade of carbon permits. Republicans as well as Democrats from Southern and Western states weren’t buying the idea of legislating policy that would cause consumers to pay those “skyrocketing” prices for electricity President Barack Obama expressed a wish for during his campaign.

The American Council for Capital Formation and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council undertook a comprehensive study of the latest approach, the Kerry-Lieberman ‘American Power Act.’ The study found that as many as 1.9 million jobs could ultimately be lost if that legislation had passed.

Steve Mosher and Tom Fuller recently released their book ‘Climategate: The Crutape Letters.’ Top climate change website Watts Up With That said, “For those of you that want to follow a detective story, this one has as the twists and turns of Mickey Spillane with a Hardy Boys approach to a matter of fact story line. I highly recommend it.”Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has released a ‘sneak-peek’ into a major new Senate report on an investigation of the Climategate scandal. A statement at Inhofe’s Senate website said emails and documents were reviewed from “a 13-year period from 1996 through November 2009.” The Environmental Protection Agency ignored the serious implications of the emails and documents made public.

The US Report was one of the first media outlets in the world to question Dr. R.K. Pachauri’s chummy relationship with Big Oil as neolibs like to call the industry. In a December 1 column we criticized U.S. newspapers for going no further than a descriptive for Dr. R.K. Pachauri who heads up the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change.

We wrote, “If newspapers retained any mettle whatsoever, by now at least one would have disclosed the chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is chummy with the dastardly entity alleged liberals call Big Oil. Dr. R.K. Pachauri’s bio says: ‘In January 1999, Dr. R. K. Pachauri was appointed as Director, Board of Directors of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (a Fortune 500 company) for a period of 3 years.’

U.S. newspapers have failed miserably in covering climate change/aka global warming/aka The Little Ice Age. But a British paper finally took a hard look at Pachauri and the information suggests I’ve been right all along about pure profit driving the climate change industry, common sense conservation values be damned.

On the heels of one of the greatest scandals in the history of science, my hometown newspaper ran stories on global warming, carbon dioxide levels and the end of the world in 2012. The stories ran in section A in Sunday’s big fat paper—fat because of all the Christmas advertising inserts. There was no mention of the scandal, however. [Story continues after photo.]

My copy of my hometown newspaper's Sunday feature on global warming, along with a feature on carbon dioxide emissions and a feature on the end of the world. No opinions opposing global warming alarmism could be found on the page.